Our Story

Innovative, immersive productions & engaging participatory events

​Mission Statement

Waterperry Opera Festival:

A unique and innovative opera festival hosted at the beautiful Waterperry House & Gardens in Oxfordshire. The festival offers accessible and socially relevant productions, created and performed by a diverse community of artists, which bridge the gap between performer and spectator.

​We aim to:

○ Make accessible work: by producing operas in the English language, wherever possible, and making tickets affordable to the general public including offering lower prices to students, unwaged and disabled persons.

○ Provide socially relevant work: by making it meaningful to today's audiences through an exploration of contemporary social issues and timeless themes relating to human existence.

○ Bridge the gap between performer and spectator: by offering intimate and immersive productions, and participatory events designed to inspire audiences and demonstrate the creative process through talks, masterclasses and workshops.

​○ ​Support a diverse community of artists: by selecting and developing a community of artists who are at different stages of their careers and from a variety of backgrounds and training some of them on our Young Artist programme.

Our Story

Waterperry Opera Festival was founded in 2017 by Rebecca Meltzer, Guy Withers and Bertie Baigent. The Festival was developed to create innovative productions and engaging participatory events in beautiful Waterperry House & Gardens. These wonderful spaces offer exciting opportunities to create extraordinary indoor and outdoor theatre.

Opera is a unique art form that can tell stories of significance and beauty like no other medium. One of our Festival’s aims is to explore contemporary social issues through our productions. In our 2018 inaugural season, our Don Giovanni, a timeless masterpiece, and A Hand of Bridge, a 20th century jazz operetta, both explored provocative themes relating to issues of gender. We also believe in championing women artists, and are very proud that both main operas in our first season were directed by women, and two other shows explored the works of two female authors – Jane Austen and Beatrix Potter.

​​Waterperry Opera Festival is committed to creating work that bridges the gap between performer and spectator by offering intimate and immersive productions and engaging participatory events. We want opera to be available and affordable to as many people as possible. As a charity, we will endeavour to inspire more to take part in art, music and theatre. We are also committed to supporting diverse emerging artists and have developed a Young Artist Programme at the very centre of our work. We are excited about nurturing a festival of events for operagoers of all backgrounds and ages and we look to a future full of potential and enthusiasm for our growing community of artists and audiences.

In 2019, the Festival will extend to 4 days, running 25th – 28th July 2019, with a broad range of events spanning across the Waterperry site. As we embark on our second season, we look to the enchanted realms of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Like our inaugural season, our 2019 programme will embrace the magical gardens at Waterperry and the intimate open-air amphitheatre. Our sell-out production of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park will return for 4 performances, directed by Festival Director Rebecca Meltzer, as will our family show, Peter Rabbit’s Musical Adventure, which will again delight audiences in Waterperry’s rose garden. Our popular Come & Sing Workshop will also return, offering anyone interested in singing an opportunity to give opera a go with our Festival Orchestra. Both our 2019 amphitheatre shows will include pre-performance discussions, and free events will include our Young Artist Masterclass and a staging of Britten’s Abraham & Isaac, devised and performed by our Young Artists.

Waterperry Opera Festival is a registered charity.Registered Charity Number 1177966